|

|

|

Xbox Community Games Arrive at New Xbox Experience Launch

The Xbox Community Games feature, the long-awaited system allowing amateur developers to create games for the Xbox 360, will come online with its own Channel when the New Xbox Experience launches on November 19.

A video interview with Kathleen Sanders from the XNA team on Major Nelson reveals the process by which aspiring developers can design and submit their own games to Xbox Live. Xbox Live subscribers can download games from the Community Games Channel, though none of them will be free.

"It's crazy, the range of games [I've seen] ... you've got Pong clones, you've got RTSs ... it continually surprises me," Sanders said of the games made so far.

"Unlike Xbox Live Arcade games, when a creator creates a game, from the time that they submit it for peer review, to the time it appears on Xbox Live, is 48 hours," commented Sanders.

XNA is a development environment for programmers to create games for Windows and Xbox 360 and Microsoft has incentivized XNA game development in the past with Xbox Live Arcade contracts. Now, creators themselves will be able to sell games and collect 70% royalties for their work.